All I can say about this summer's garden experience is BOUNTIFUL! I believe I can put my "Novice" title behind me now. The hours spent researching, reading, experimenting has finally paid off. Just about everything I've grown this summer has produced and remained healthy. No major insect or bacterial issues due to constant preventive maintenance. Well worth the time and effort, I can assure you.
As you will see from the photos, Carrots, Potatoes, Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and even
flowers have produced and keep producing.
The succession plantings of the carrots provided harvests all summer. I will be starting fall planting of carrots in the next few weeks and will plant every two weeks to ensure the same outcome.
The baking potato harvest wasn't as good as the potted red potatoes but still enjoyed cooking and eating them just the same. I made a wonderful potato and onion hash that was out of this world.
I am most impressed with the Roma tomatoes that
I planted from seed, started early in the spring. The five plants that survived have been consistently producing healthy Delicious tomatoes and make in my opinion, the best sauce. I've been harvesting these little gems and instead of going through the labor intensive process of "canning", I've opted to simply blanching, pealing and putting in freezer bags with fresh basil and sticking in the freezer for later use. This is SO much easier than canning. The flavor of the Roma tomato is very sweet and robust, typically used for paste but just as good to make a fine sauce.
The cow horn and Jalapeno peppers are also a favorite, although I'm struggling to come up with ideas and recipes to use them in. I've been frying the cow horns in olive oil and garlic and they keep in the refrigerator a long time. Chopped jalapeno added to a taco pie adds a nice kick also. I found a good recipe for pepper jelly/relish and am going to try it this weekend. I love that poured over soft cream cheese with a good cracker.
Having space in the two 4 x 4 beds after pulling out the spent cucumbers, I decided to try sweet potatoes. They seem easy to grow and I put the slips in with I believe enough time left with the summer heat to produce a nice harvest. I also planted a few watermelon seedlings in the other bed however its been at least 3 weeks and no new growth has begun. I may have missed the window of planting time for watermelon. I will leave them in a few more weeks, if no change, they will need to come out to make room for my fall plantings.
The Japanese Eggplant is also producing and is the sweetest I've ever grown. I also tried the black beauty variety again and am very happy that both plants are healthy and have already produced a nice size fruit with more flowering on the plant.
Yes, it's been a very bountiful season for sure.
HAPPY GARDENING!
Mary
